Front Royal man among Carnegie Heroes

A Front Royal man is among 22 people who will be honored with cash awards and medals for heroism by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission on Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

Bruce Edward Smoot, 43, saved a husband and wife from a fire that destroyed much of their Front Royal duplex on Super Bowl night in February 2012.

Smoot and Officer L.J. Waller of the Front Royal Police Department “waded through thick black smoke to reach the victims,” according to a news story in the Northern Virginia Daily.

“I didn’t really think about it. I just reacted,” Smoot told the Daily the day after the fire. “I guess I got it in me and didn’t know it.”

The other winners are from Alberta, Arkansas, British Columbia, California, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. Four of the winners died while trying to save others.

The Carnegie Hero awards are named for Pittsburgh industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who was inspired by stories of heroism during a coal mine disaster that killed 181 people. The commission awards medals and cash several times a year and has given away more than $36 million to nearly 10,000 awardees or their families since its inception in 1904.